Sexsmith takes the stage at Moncton’s Capitol Theatre tomorrow evening. The show starts at 8 p.m.

Born in St. Catherines, Ont., Sexsmith found inspiration in the works of songwriters including Ray Davies (The Kinks), John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and would eventually relocate his family to Toronto in efforts to further his music career. And while those who know him seem to adore his oeuvre unfalteringly, commercial success has, so far, eluded Sexsmith.

Perhaps that is why for his 11th record, Long Player Late Bloomer, Sexsmith chose to shake things up, working with renowned producer Bob Rock who has worked with the likes of Metallica and Our Lady Peace but has also worked with Michael Buble. Buble was actually the one who recommended to Sexsmith that he and Rock work together.

“I had the bulk of these songs written and was asking for people’s advice on who they thought could help me make a record that was focused and might in turn get me on the radio,” a friendly Sexsmith says from his Toronto home.

“I had met Bob during the Juno Awards in Vancouver but it was actually Michael Buble that suggested I consider working with Bob to make the record,” he says. “I considered the thought of working with Bob to be insane for so many reasons but nonetheless, I had my manager contact Bob’s people to see if there would be any interest in working together and they came back to us the same day to say ‘Absolutely’.”

Discouraged by the reception afforded to his previous two records, Sexsmith says that he had a gut feeling that if he were to break out of his “rut”, he knew that changes were imminent.

“Long Player Late Bloomer was about trying to resurrect my career and my confidence,” Sexsmith says. “Bob definitely played a big part in making both happen.”

Sexsmith’s career has indeed found a second wind thanks to his latest record, released in March 2011, especially here in Canada, but also in Europe where Sexsmith earned a Silver sales award for the album.

“With this record, especially in England, I found myself reconnecting with a lot of fans that maybe hadn’t followed me in recent years. In the United States, which is probably one of the toughest markets in the world to crack, it felt as though I had some wind in my sails as well. And of course, here at home in Canada, the record did well and made the shortlist for last year’s Polaris Prize. It has been quite a good year for me. There were a lot of good things to happen for me with this record.”

While promotional efforts behind Long Player Late Bloomer are now wrapping up, Sexsmith has been anything but idle. He reveals that he recently completed a new studio record with producer Mitchell Froom that he hopes will be released in the fall.

“It is a very different record from Long Player,” he says. “I didn’t plan the record this way but it is probably one of the most lavish albums I have ever made with strings, woodwinds and horns. I am really proud of it.”

Article published in February 3, 2012 edition of the Times & Transcript

Boasting a sound that is rooted in the simple yet real rock music of the 1970s, Gloryhound use nothing more than guitar, bass and drums and they don’t plan on changing that format anytime soon. Given the rising popularity of bands like The Sheepdogs and The Black Keys, both of whom have a modern yet retro-influenced sound, it should be no surprise that Gloryhound were selected by Deep Purple to open their string of dates throughout Atlantic Canada.

Gloryhound joins Deep Purple at their shows Saturday and Monday at Casino New Brunswick in Moncton.

Despite being given a relatively short period of time to prepare for their shows with Deep Purple, Gloryhound vocalist and guitarist Evan Meisner says the band wouldn’t have turned down the opportunity to open for the legendary Deep Purple for anything.

“It was such an honour to be chosen to open these shows for one of the great, quintessential rock bands of our time,” Meisner says.

While Deep Purple might not have been a direct influence upon the group, Meisner makes no bones in admitting that though the band in living in the present day and age, they readily identify with music that was made in the 1970s. With one full-length effort and one EP under their belts, Gloryhound’s sound is one that is well beyond their relatively young years.

“The bare bones approach of guitar, bass and drums is something that has always appealed to us. Right now, it feels like there is a resurgence in bands whose sound is a throwback to a different era. It’s great for the music industry too because people are always going to appreciate the roots of rock n’ roll. There is something about the music that is pure, organic and timeless. I think that people really miss that simplicity in their music these days.

“All you hear on the radio these days are bands that seem to all have the same sound. It’s an over-compressed and over digitized approach to making music. When we made our record, it was us playing live off the floor. All of the instrumentation was done in one day with the vocals being cut the next day. Recording can be a drawn-out process but for us, it was important to capture that lightning in a bottle, so to speak.”

And though their sound owes much to music from the past, Meisner says that he and band mates Shaun Hanlon, Jeremy MacPherson and Dave Casey are proud to wear their influences on their sleeves but are also cognizant of not immersing themselves too deeply in the past.

“We can’t nor do we want to ignore our influences but at the same token, we don’t want to be a complete throwback band. We want to ensure that we remain relevant in our time and age,” Meisner says.

Article featured in February 3, 2012 edition of the Times & Transcript

The Mark Inside’s Chris Levoir recently chatted with The MusicNerd Chronicles. Be sure to check out the band’s powerful video for their song “Shots From A Broken Bottle” below.

Over the past year or so, it seems as though the tide is turning towards people embracing bands like The Mark Inside, The Sheepdogs, etc – bands that are playing real music, real rock n roll. Do you feel this is accurate?

Levoir: I certainly hope so, it would bode well for us. We’ve been sticking it out a long time because we enjoy what we’re doing. It satisfies us deeply and we feel we are communicating most honestly this way. In our music we feel we have put our best foot forward as humans hoping to leave behind something true and that matters more than fitting a definition per se; hopefully that is obvious. Real music should mean that it came from a real place, not someone doing what they think will be received well. The next level to that would be there is genius in every genre, but all genres get watered down by people fishing in those ponds hoping to feel ownership to things that they react to from others work/art; I feel time has tested us and proven we own what we say and do, we know our motives and what we do comes from our hearts.

Bands that are fantastic live acts sometimes have difficulty capturing that live feeling when it comes to the record. How important of a role did Jim Abbiss play in making this happen? 

Levoir: We were sold on Jim because he described his intent to record us as we sound live, leaving all instrumentation set-up and ready to go at once throughout the entire recording, we recorded most live off the floor, focusing on the rhythm section and then Gus and I would overdub or replace bits that we felt weren’t quite up to snuff, some songs on the record are truly off the floor, ‘Shots from a Broken Bottle’ being one, I did all vocals afterwards. We have heart when we play so I think the focus was to keep the live focus and make it feel that way on playback. After all the time we sat on the record we all feel very proud of it and have great memories of the whole process. Jim was awesome. We are forever in debt to him and his partner in MetalBox, Sandy Dworniak who took a chance on us footing the bill for a month of recording and signing us to their label afterwards.

Given how the music industry has been in free-fall over the past decade-plus, how important is spreading the word of The Mark Inside via live shows? 

Levoir: We get the most satisfaction playing live, it is an immediate and a true proving ground. There is no higher level to music than doing it live in front of people, the feeling of a full room of people who are with you and singing along to words because they understand your meaning makes you humble and so fucking ecstatic and appreciative. In the face of the ever changing landscape its actually sustainable. Shooting videos and doing press and knowing the stories that go into a band recording or going through hardships informs anticipation for ultimately seeing it played out live in front of you. Speaking about it is foreplay playing it live is the act.

Founded in 2007, the group is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a production of The Three Musketeers, a story of heroism, treachery, close escapes and honour. The Three Musketeers is slated to take the stage at Moncton’s Empress Theatre starting Thursday and continuing through Saturday.

Hub City Theatre’s artistic director and founder Robin Oxley says that they launched Hub City Theatre in 2007 due to a distinct lack of independent theatrical outlets in Metro Moncton.

“Many of us involved with Hub City Theatre were all theatre students ourselves and found that while there are a lot of performers and artists in the Moncton area, there wasn’t a lot of outlets for theatre,” Robin says. “There are plenty of productions put on by area high schools, which is fantastic, but a big part of what inspired us to start Hub City was that there wasn’t a whole lot after high school productions. We are trying to bridge that gap.”

After successfully staging productions including The Tragedy of Macbeth in 2011, Romeo and Juliet in 2010 and Taming of the Shrew in 2007, Oxley says that the group’s decision to go with The Three Musketeers was born out of a desire to insert some lighter fare into the theatre group’s repertoire.

“The last two or three productions that we have put on have been tragedies and tend to be more thought-provoking productions. The Three Musketeers is more family friendly and a fun, exciting production to be staging. That was the main thrust going with this specific production this time.”

Of course, what would The Three Musketeers be without a generous helping of swordplay? Robin says that to put on the production they wanted to, it was necessary to have 10 of the production’s 16 actors trained in fencing. He admits that in addition to actors needing to learn their lines, picking up the necessary skills to stage an effective sword fight was an extra challenge to the group.

Marc Landry is a member of the Moncton Fencing Club who was charged with preparing the actors in The Three Musketeers for their sword fighting scenes. Marc has been participating in fencing for 12 years now, and was inspired to take up the sport after researching it in his Grade 9 English class. Marc competed in the Canada Games in 2003 and while he devotes the majority of his time to coaching others in the art of fencing, he still takes part in one or two competitions each year.

“My responsibility was to take them from zero to having a good understanding of the dynamics and form of the sport,” Marc says of the cast. “I was showing them everything from how to move to how to position their hands and how to defend themselves. Over the nights that I rehearsed with the group, we ensured that everyone had the chance to suit up with full gear and masks while I offered them feedback on their form and how to perhaps make it more ‘flashy’ for the stage.”

Although preparations to stage The Three Musketeers has been a little more in-depth compared to previous productions, Robin is confident that audiences will love the end result.

“We have definitely come a long way. I have been very pleased to see the way that the actors and the show have been maturing. With community theatre, people can’t always put in the time and effort needed to stage a production like this, however as we draw to the end and our first shows, we can look back upon the experience and just marvel at the way everyone has grown into their skills. Those involved with the play will definitely be bringing their all to the stage.”

Article published in January 30, 2012 edition of the Times & Transcript

When the Times & Transcript caught up with Arkells guitarist Mike DeAngelis last week, he was in the midst of getting set to play what would be Arkells’ biggest hometown show to date at the Hamilton Convention Centre.

Asked if performing a hometown show tends to be more nerve-wracking than playing a for an audience of strangers in say Moncton, as the band will be doing this Tuesday night at the Manhattan Bar & Grill, DeAngelis says the nerves prior to playing hometown shows tend to differ from those when they play in other cities.

“Playing the Convention Centre will be the biggest show that we have ever played here in Hamilton. It is very exciting to us,” a friendly DeAngelis says. “Hamilton has always been very supportive of the band; it makes us proud to call Hamilton home.

“Our show is a mixture of excitement and nerves though. Whenever you’re on tour, you want to come back home and be at your best because people know you here.”

Not to diminish the importance of playing a successful hometown show, DeAngelis and his band mates Nick Dika, Dan Griffin, Max Kerman and Tim Oxford actually have a fair number of things to be excited about these days. Last October, the group released their long-awaited sophomore record, Michigan Left, after having undertaken seemingly endless touring in support of their 2008 debut Jackson Square. In the three years between records, the band had the opportunity to perform alongside high-profile acts like Them Crooked Vultures, Pearl Jam, Metric and more.

The extensive touring behind Jackson Square resulted in the group penning some of their strongest material to date on Michigan Left while also giving the group a greater appreciation for exploring pop music.

“Playing live has always been very important to the band. A song sounding good on record is always a focus for us but making sure the songs translated in the live setting was also very important to us,” DeAngelis says.

DeAngelis is the first to admit that the group has grown by leaps and bounds in the time since recording the guitar-heavy Jackson Square. He says the slight change in the group’s sound on Michigan Left is the result of the band choosing to embrace melody.

“In the time leading up to the recording of Jackson Square, a lot of the music we were listening to was guitar-based music,” DeAngelis says. “With Michigan Left, we consciously tried to steer away from that. We wanted to make the guitar more of a detail instrument this time rather than just strumming away. This time, we chose to let the melody in these songs be front and centre. We embraced new textures that are softer, however there are many tracks on the record that can be played back to back with songs from Jackson Square and the show’s momentum doesn’t suffer for it.”

Another factor behind the potentially perceived “relaxed” sound of Michigan Left was the environment where the record was made. Recorded at the Bathhouse in Bath, Ont., the rural setting of the studio combined with all five members living under the same roof during the recording process was a definite plus as far as DeAngelis is concerned.

“I found the real advantage of working at the Bathhouse was that the environment was conducive to experimentation. We were living and making music all under the same roof. In all honesty, it really didn’t feel like a studio; we could come and go as we wanted and ended up working on our own schedules. If we had an idea develop that we were interested in pursuing, there was nothing stopping us from us sticking to the idea and just completely wringing the idea out until we had something that we were happy with. That was a luxury that we didn’t have on Jackson Square but one that helped serve Michigan Left best,” DeAngelis says.

“Ultimately, it was liberating to make a record on our own terms. Making records is something that is very personal to almost any band and at the end of the day, we have to be really proud of what we are doing otherwise there is no point to us continuing.”

Article published in January 27, 2012 edition of the Times & Transcript

Hard to feel sorry for them, isn’t it?

Poor Young Things will be performing at Moncton’s Plan B Lounge on Sunday evening starting at 9 p.m.

While countless bands before them have sought the opportunity to have their music careers take off by making the move to Toronto, the figurative epicenter for the Canadian music business, not all bands before them have been so successful in their efforts. The fortune that has greeted Poor Young Things has not been lost on vocalist Matt Fratpietro.

“It really is surreal to think about how fast everything came together for us once we moved to Toronto. It is almost too good to be true,” he starts. “We had been playing together for approximately three years before we made the move to Toronto. It was a decision made as a band, that if we were going to be serious about trying to make music for a living, Toronto was the place to be in Canada.”

Fratpietro says that despite being a smaller fish in the big pond of Toronto, the group knew the potential for opportunities was far greater than if they had chosen to stay in Thunder Bay. Before long, the group had made friends with many, playing as often as they could. Eventually, they attracted the attention of Bumstead Records, label home of successful east coast rock band The Trews.

“For us, being with a label the size of Bumstead is rather appealing to us. Essentially, they are a major indie label, the perfect mix of grassroots belief in the band and the dedication to stand by us while our fan base builds from constant touring.”

Poor Young Things debut EP Let It Sleep (released nationally earlier this week) was recorded in the relatively quick span of two and a half weeks. The decision to not over think things was a wise one on the part of the band and producer Jon Drew as the EP captures the band’s energy and melody while not compromising on enthusiasm in the least.

“We got into the studio and didn’t want to over think the songs or pick things apart too much. Keeping the integrity of the songs was important to us.”

Article published in January 27, 2012 edition of the Times & Transcript

Swollen Members perform at the Oxygen on Saturday, Feb. 16. Advance tickets are $15 and are available at Spin It, 467 Main St., Moncton.

In the early part of this century, it seemed as though all Western Canadian hip hop group Swollen Members touched turned to gold. The group found themselves darlings of Muchmusic with each of their videos played in high rotation on the once-influential media outlet. Legal troubles, substance addiction and more found their way to the band however and the group seemingly fell off the face of the earth for a number of years. The band reconvened and emerged a stronger band with 2009’s Armed To The Teeth. Swollen Member’s newest album, Dagger Mouth, was released last year and was heralded by many of the band’s fans as a return to their roots.

Bruce Cockburn performs at Moncton’s Capitol Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 16 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets start at $30.50 plus service charge. Advance tickets are available from the Capitol Theatre Box Office and Frank’s Music, 245 Carson Drive, Moncton.

In late 2010, Canadian songwriting legend Bruce Cockburn was booked to the play a rather extensive Atlantic Canadian tour however a bout with pneumonia forced him to abandon these plans. Cockburn makes his long-awaited return to Moncton’s Capitol Theatre in mid-February, touring behind his excellent 2011 record Small Source of Comfort, his 31st studio record. The man behind timeless hits such as Lovers In A Dangerous Time and If I Had A Rocket Launcher took home two Canadian Folk Music Awards last month, one for Contemporary Album of the Year and the other for Solo Artist of the Year.

Deep Purple performs two shows at Casino New Brunswick, Saturday, Feb. 4, and Monday, Feb. 6. Ticket prices start at $65 (plus taxes and service charges) and are available at the Casino Gift Shop, by phone at 1-866-943-8849 and online at www.ticketbreak.com/casinonb.

Formed in 1968, few bands have had the staying power of England’s Deep Purple. The group best known for classic songs like Smoke On The Water, Highway Star and Strange Kind of Woman has two shows slated to take place at Moncton’s Casino New Brunswick as a part of an extensive 17 date Cross-Canada tour. Though the group has undergone a number of line-up changes since their formation, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Ron Sexsmith is playing at the Capitol Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 4. Tickets for the show start at $20.50 plus service charge. Advance tickets are available from the Capitol Theatre Box Office and Frank’s Music, 245 Carson Drive, Moncton.

Long a critical darling with fans including Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney, Canadian songwriter Ron Sexsmith looked to change gears somewhat for his newest record Long Player Late Bloomer. To help him realize his vision, Sexsmith enlisted mega-producer Bob Rock to help him achieve his vision and possibly broaden his fan base. Sexsmith is a dynamic live performer and shows time and again why he is one of Canada’s true songwriting heroes. Be sure to check out my feature interview with Ron Sexsmith in next week’s Metro.